Posted on 06/04/2024 8:42:56 AM PDT by eastexsteve
I live in rural NE Texas, and we experience power outages often. Some last for days. This year, we've been hammered by bad weather, and this round is the 12th time I've been on generator power this year. I've played the "generator game" for decades, starting off with one that I thought would be just good enough to keep me going, running the bare minimum appliances until the power came back on. This was torture. In my opinion, most people make bad decisions when it comes to buying a generator. They think small, and short run times. The truth is, here in Texas, you need one big enough to power your whole house, including A/C. For a 2,000 sqft house with a family of four, (that is VERY energy efficient with all LED lights etc.,) you are talking at least a 12KW - 13KW running watt (not surge watt) generator. If you want to stay married and keep your kids from running away from home, don't think about anything smaller. And, you want it fuel efficient enough to run all day. Also, you want one built to go extended run times. Most of these smaller camping or job site generators won't cut it, since they won't run very long under a load between fueling, and require oil changes every 50 hours. You're not powering a tent or a garage shop. You are powering your house, and you may have to do it for many days. Propane/Natural gas generators are VERY inefficient. Gasoline is somewhat better. Diesel is the best. Here in Texas during the "big freeze" a few years ago, some people even lost natural gas pressure! With the world like it is, and getting worse, you need to consider things like fuel, fuel storage, and fuel availability in case of a SHTF scenario. Before you go plop down hundreds of dollars on a generator thinking you need just enough to get you by, you better give it some serious thought.
DOD Auctions have some nice diesel powered big generators available. I’m looking at one of those and the price looks right
General waste of money and effort. How long is the power actually off? Unless you have ice storms or hurricanes it is not very long. I use a PTO generator for the tractor. It sits pickled in the corner of the barn for sometimes years until we have an ice storm and then it may run for a week or so at most. Sure nice to have for those rare occasions though. I would not mess with it otherwise.
Yeah. The tornadic weather!
As for racking a shotgun, I always keep a round chambered. I like surprises.
Do like I do, post NRA stickers at every entrance. That is all the warning needed. If someone enters, just say “you are making me fear for my life” and fire away. They don’t have to hear it, and afterwards it won’t matter. But, you need to tell the coppers about it with a straight face.
Have had a Generac for 20 years.
Automatic switch over is a must
Spare parts are a must.
Have gone through 3 controllers, they are very sensitive to power surge.
Although one was a direct lightning strike blew out half of everything in house.
Good post for those who can afford it and need it, cold and heat need a lot of energy and if you have a family, then your experience expresses how they need to prepare.
I may buy a dual fuel camper version to feed my freezers for 3 days, other than that I can endure the lack of heat and cooling for myself.
For those timid souls worrying about a generator bringing the goblins, I guess they anticipate hiding in the dark and letting the world push them around, and if someone lives in a neighborhood where a simple 3 or 7 day blackout leads to an Alamo siege because you have a living room light on while playing board games with the wife and kids, then move for God’s sake.
I'm on a co-op, so we have really cheap electricity. But, even this diesel generator costs way more to run than the power company charges.
I live about 22 miles west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee and have had a 36KW water cooled Generac generator, all house, fully automatic, for about five years. My house is all electric and that generator is designed to cover both running and starting; hence, its large size. It runs off a 500 gallon tank of propane, which is completely filled with 400 gallons. The hourly fuel consumption rate is about 1 gallon per hour. Propane was my choice because it doesn’t go stale the way gasoline and diesel can. The total cost for the entire installation was about $29,000. I grant you, I went the Cadillac way. However, I wanted, I could afford it, and I bought it. I’ve never had any regrets.
I maintained diesel generators in four counties for home my coms centers. We had those old tractor engines or GM 1949 GM 1950s. They were workhorse.
For my home I use two different units, a Costco 6000w and 5800 Gas/Propain unit, which I connect to the house. We heat/cook/Hot water on NG. Our home is fully converted to LED lighting. I run them for a few hours several times a day, more for the freezers and frig. We can charge phones and I use my trolling motor battery for keeping phones charged.
I don’t consider a power outage normal living conditions and an emergency.
It costs about 250 USD to wire a 30amp outside elec hook up box if you do it your self.
You don't select a generator based on your average power draw over a 24 hour period. You need enough power to run your maximum expected continuous load. Then you build in a cushion in case you exceed that power draw because someone decides to use the toaster, microwave, clothes dryer and air conditioner at the same time.
Great thread...thank you.
I get the reliability of diesel, but that 12KW system you pointed me to is twice the price of a 24KW NG/LP system, and until it gets to the point of the gas company turning off both gas and electric (sounds like tyranny and wartime), the NG system seems like an easier to manage system. Also dont need to store diesel fuel. I feel ok for now with having the NG and can always add an LP tank down the road. For having a power outage only a handful of times a year for between a few hours to a few days at a time, how much maintenance will that really involve? Cant imagine its more than vehicle maintenance.
LOL! It's cheaper to buy it from the power company than to get it from this generator.
My kid asked a cop, how the ‘homeless’ were able to run their generators quietly.
Cop said, they dig a hole in the ground and put them in it.
There was no corruption money to be made by steadily increasing the supply of cheap, reliable power. There was plenty of corruption money to send to legislators to mandate solar and wind which cost 3x per KWh but enriches connected people. Make no mistake, TX government is second only to California in size and while not unfriendly to businesses it is still incredibly corrupt (as all powerful governments become).
Whole house generators have lots of hidden costs. Unless you can do some of the work yourself, which the contractor won’t like (ground prep,etc), it may cost $15k and up for something big enough to handle a large house.
Then, there is the power source. If it is propane, you need a large tank.350 gallon or more. If you don’t buy it, the gas company will charge you a fee for not filling it each year. If you buy it, which I recommend, there will be an installation fee, and an inspection fee every time you get a new gas company.
There will be yearly inspections and upkeep fees on the generators. Some farmers have PTO hook ups and run their generators off their tractors. A bit noisy but efficient, I think.
For years, I used a little 8000kw generator with a self-start. When the power went out, I cut off my main. (Very important for the safety of the power repair guys). Then, started my generator and back-fed it through my 220 welding plug in the garage. It ran most of my stuff in my house. I would cut off my well and not let anyone use anything big (microwave, etc. ). It could run my well but not while the furnace was running. I would run the gen for a few hours and let people do things like charge phones and power packs. Heat the house of well. Take showers. At night, I would shut the gen down and we camped out till morning.
Had to have about 20 gallons of gas on hand to make it through a few days.
“But they won’t hear the sound of what will stop their looting permanently.”
ROTFLMAO!!!!
That is a huge amount of energy. 312 kwh per day.
We live in the bay area, we don’t even use 20 kwh a day. Granted we have mild weather here.
An average heat pump runs on 5kw, and of course that is intermittent, so a 13 kw generator is a bit much for a regular house.
We have a 8kw generator and run the whole house with it.
I always figured that 1200Watt Honda gas burner wasnt quite gonna cut it if the power fails. Maybe enough to keep your iphone charged.
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